Griffin is not unlike Paul Newman's nearly unflappable, enigmatic character from the 1967 film. He can take a beating and deliver under pressure, as he showed in a Thanksgiving Day 38-31 victory against the Dallas Cowboys.

Yet Griffin, quick with a smile and a joke, isn't quite sure who this Luke guy is. When news reporters asked Griffin â?? one of two Redskins born in the 1990s â?? if he knew the reference, he didn't. But â?¦

"He must have been pretty cool."

Griffin doesn't have to know much about film history, or even football history. Every week he steps on the football field, he's writing it. Not in six tries had the Redskins beaten the Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving before Thursday. It also marked the first time in the Redskins' 80-year history that their quarterback had passed for four TDs in consecutive games, and the Redskins have more points through 11 games (295) than they did all last season (288).

Griffin's latest achievements came in his professional debut in Texas, where he attended college at Baylor University, and grew up in Copperas Cove, three hours south of Dallas. Aside from the swaths of Cowboys blue and Redskins burgundy, there were clumps of fans in Baylor green, and chants of "RGIII" could be heard in the rafters when Griffin got hot.

"It's a heated rivalry, but I think at one point fans were more cheering for people that they like rather than their teams," Griffin said.

Shanahan said he didn't see Griffin behaving different than usual in the lead-up to the game.

"He just handles himself and goes about his business," Shanahan said. "Works extremely hard to prepare for a game. He knows how to avoid distractions. He focuses on his job and doesn't seem to let anything bother him.

"That's why he has the success that he has."

Griffin has played at the home of the Cowboys before, winning at Baylor and in high school, but he never liked the Cowboys growing up in Copperas Cove. He made sure the feeling was mutual in his first game vs. Washington's division rival.

The Cowboys backed off the blitz early and Griffin responded by sitting calmly in the pocket and finding his receivers -- in the flats, across midfield, along the sidelines and deep down the hashes. Fellow rookie Alfred Morris chewed up 113 yards on the ground on 24 rushing attempts. The Redskins' longest play from scrimmage came when Griffin faked a handoff to Morris and found wide-open Aldrick Robinson 40 yards downfield en route to a 68-yard touchdown.

"It just felt like were were showing everybody what we are capable of," Griffin said.

The Redskins offense quickly silenced the home crowd, taking a 28-3 halftime lead, and even hushed the Cowboys' vocal owner.

"I was in awe," Jerry Jones said in his postgame media scrum. "I was just really disappointed, but I was in awe of RGIII and the plays he was making."

It was a new feeling for the Redskins defense, suddenly getting used to playing with big leads. In two games, victories against NFC East foes Philadelphia and Dallas, Griffin has completed 34 of 43 passes for 511 yards and eight touchdowns with one interception.

"From a defensive standpoint, it's great," Redskins linebacker Lorenzo Alexander said. "You can also sit back and watch Robert do what he does."

But Tony Romo and the Cowboys wouldn't let Griffin leave his home state with a win without working for it -- and taking a few lumps. Griffin was picked off for the first time in four weeks and sacked four times in a game in which the Cowboys came within a score of erasing a 25-point deficit. Romo was the driving force of Dallas' near comeback, throwing two touchdown passes in a two-minute span in the fourth quarter.

But Dallas fell short when Griffin led a late drive for a Kai Forbath field goal that ushed the lead to 10, and now the NFC East outlook is this: If the 6-4 New York Giants lose Sunday vs. the Green Bay Packers, Washington will play a December home game for first place in the NFC East. This for a team that finished 5-11 last year, not quite bad enough to select Griffin with their earned pick.

So they dealt their first-round pick (No. 6), a second-round pick (No. 39) and first-round slots over the next two years to move up four spots. It was considered by some an exorbitant price. Before Sunday, Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan threw an understated jab at the decision, telling reporters, "(Griffin's) a special player, and that's why they traded half the team to get him."

Apparently, the Redskins still had sufficient pieces to put up 437 yards on Ryan's defense, and 28 points in the second quarter alone.

One major piece acquired in the offseason shake-up was wide receiver Pierre Garcon, who overcame what he described as constant pain from a torn foot ligament to make five catches for 93 yards, including a 59-yard second-quarter touchdown. He showed no signs of pain on the play, breaking away from Cowboys defensive backs in a footrace.

"I couldn't be more proud of these guys," Griffin said of his receivers, who eliminated the drops that had been a constant theme this season. "I told those guys if we ball out like that, we can't be stopped."

If the Redskins ever miss those traded picks, the defense will probably be the cause. It held Dallas to 124 yards of offense in the first half, but gave up 334 in the second half and struggled most notably in tackling Cowboys receivers.

But after the second quarter, Washington's defensive troubles came with insurance.

And now Griffin, the Redskins captain, leads his team back to Washington with 10 days between them and a Monday night visit from the Giants. If the Giants were enjoying turkey and stuffing Thursday, or studying Packers game tape instead of watching RGIII, they have some catching up to do.